The most important hire for Michigan State athletics this century (arguably) has not been made yet.
Over the years, we've called certain coaching searches the "most important" ever for their respective programs but we haven't quite seen one of this magnitude before. This time, it's for the next athletic director and even hires in the past weren't as big as the one that's going to be made by Michigan State this summer heading into the 2025-26 athletic season.
Alan Haller was just let go by Michigan State because he fell short in certain areas like NIL utilization and just keeping up with the big boys of the major sports monetarily.
So with NIL and the transfer portal taking center stage these days, Michigan State needs to hire an athletic director that will focus on those areas and help raise money for Jonathan Smith and Tom Izzo so their programs can excel and the success will trickle down to the other programs.
When basketball and football do well, everyone gets paid.
While no one has been identified or rumored as the next AD yet, an interesting development on the salary front was reported on Tuesday by The Detroit News' Tony Paul.
Paul mentioned that the next AD could be in place by mid-June as the MSU Board of Trustees has a meeting set up in Traverse City for June 13 and this upgraded salary could mean that a "name" could be the next leader in charge.
What does that mean? It may not be an under-the-radar candidate, the next AD could be a top-tier "name" that people recognize or that at least has a lot of respect in the athletics sphere currently.
Seeing that Michigan State is willing to spend some serious money on its next AD is refreshing.